VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION New User Forum Proper Engine Oil for a 1932 Chevy Straight 6

Hi - I was wondering if someone could tell me what is the best oil to use in a rebuilt Chevy straight 6 cyl. from 1932. Also what would be the best oil to use in the rear. THanks for your Help!

Hi There and welcome to Chevy Chatter II.

For your transmission and rear end, you should use 600W which is the same as 160W. You can purchase the 600W from the Filling Station in Lebanon, Oregon. www.fillingstation.com

Depending upon your engine condition, a good quality 10W-30 oil should work just fine in your '32.

I would run any of the diesel engine oils in the older engines . Like Delo Mobil Delvac Rotilla even the Wal mart house brand would work fine. As long as it is for a Diesel engine. The new oils have been designed for cars with catalytic converters hence they have dropped the ZDDP in them because it would ruin the converters .

The ZDDP is now reduced in Diesel oils also. Its not necessary for a 1932 and was not even added to oil until the '50's.
If the engine is in good condition and reasonably clean inside I would suggest regular 10W-30. It 100 times better than oils in 1932. All modern oils rated for service SM have some ZDDP. The amount has just been reduced by around 25%

Even the lower ZDDP in the newer diesel engine oils I would still use them in our older engines. The shear factor on the new passenger car oils are not as good as a Diesel engine oil.

The diesel oil is no better or no worse. It just has additives that are necessary for disel engines burning diesel fuel. In a long run its better to use the oil that the oil was formulated for the engine and driving conditiond. Don't get me wrong, I have used diesel oil in my full pressure engines for long trips. . Racing oils contain a lot of ZDDP but no detergents and don't come in a 10W-30 or lighter viscosity. Compared to 1932 oils either one is 100% better. The 15W-40 is a little too heavy for and old splash lubricated Chevrolet engine, especially one that has just been rebuilt. (as the owner mentioned). Most old car owners never drive the car far enough to bring the oil up to full operating temperature so its best to stay on hte "light" side. Actually 5W-30 would be best for the first 1000 miles. Chevrolet used and recommend a light oil at the time and used #10 from the factory.

The new lighter passenger car oils are not any good except in a modern emission engine. One could run them but it would be prudent to pour in a can of something like STP to go along with them. Then if one did that, might as well run the superior diesel oils. Even Harley Davidson recommend diesel oil in some of their owners manuals. When the passenger car oils got reformulated years ago I switched over to the diesel oils.

The myth that you need to run a heavy oil in the Chevrolet low pressure engines to maintain higher oil pressure is just that. A myth. The dipper and splash oiling system in good condition works fine on the 10W-30W oils, the Chevrolet engines from 1950 up with hydraulic lifters run better with a HD motor oil.

And the other myth about needing a high Zinc content is also a myth, a crutch used to try to explain why the new repop camshafts wear the lobes off in a few miles, however, engines with really stiff valve springs, conventional non-roller high lift performance camshafts benefit somewhat from a oil with the added Zinc. The problem on stock inline sixes isn't with the oils it is with the sorry metal that the repop cams are made from. The same mentality is associated with the vendors of aftermarket lead additives "needed to preserve the old soft valve seats" and the need for hardened valve seats. The only value of adding extra "Terta-Ethyl lead additive" is to line the pockets of the Lead vendors with your greenbacks. We have found that unleaded gasoline gives superior performance to the regular leaded gasoline of the pre 1970s leaded blends, The problems associated with the "new unleaded gasoline with ethanol of over 15%" is that it has a shelf or storage lifetime of around one week is one problem, and another problem is that it eats the old rubber and neoprene components of the fuel systems, and turns to gooy crud when it sits in a fuel vacuum tank or carb and lines over a long period of 6 to 8 months. Adding Seafoam or Stabil seems to help that situation. Just my humble opinion :vcca:

I wholeheartedly support Chevy Gene's comments. Modern oils are far superior to those of even 10 years ago for use in our old Chevys. 99% of the additives and miracle stuff sold is either worthless, harmful or extremely overpriced. It only puts $$$ in the pockets of the "mouse milkers".

The problem with oxidation of modern gasoline is not primarily due to the level of ethanol but the unsaturates produced in the refining process that are necessary to get the octane rating at a reasonable cost. Most gasoline blends have enough antioxidant added for a couple of months at the expected weather conditions in the area. If it is hotter than expected then the gas will begin to form gums and varnishes much faster. The ethanol does attract water and softens many of the elastomeric (rubber) components, neither is good.

I didn't mean to indicate that unleaded gasoline with 15% ethanol short storage time was caused by the ethanol, but the fact with me is that the one time when we couldn't get unleaded with less than 15% for our old four cylinder cars was the time when a couple months after we returned home from a tour, two of the cars in our region that had filled up with the stuff both developed problems. The gasoline destroyed the rubber in our AC Delco electric fuel booster pumps and filled the lines, vacuum tank and carbs with a brown goop that looked like chocolate syrup. The gasoline left in the main fuel tank appeared to not have "went bad" just the system forward of the tank was bad. Was this due to the disolved rubber in the system or what? I suspected that the gas going bad may have been from water in the gas, maybe added to the gas by a owner of a convenience store, or just condensation? Anyway, I don't want any more of that stuff in my cars.

Note that the 15% has only been talked about so far and is still at 10%. Even the auto makers dont want the 15% for modern cars.

Mack,
The AC electric fuel pumps have diaphragms that are not compatible with any alcohol. I have a few on the shelf and also a couple of new diaphragms. Learned that lesson 10+ years ago when I added some dry gas to a tank of fuel. The alcohol turned the diaphragm to black gooey jelly. Contacted AC and was informed that no one made diaphragms that would handle alcohol.

I changed to the pumps that look like large inline filters without any problems. I think you will also find that Sta-bil and Seafoam both contain alcohol.

Ok , The pump said contains UP TO 15% I like up to 0% best. So far our part of the boonies hasn't had to have any. We found one station in Altus Ok that advertised NO ethanol. I wonder if there is a way to seperate out the alcohol from gasoline? The only alcohol that I like is J.D. and a little Colorado koolaid.